About

idea the artist

The Seafloor is the second full-length release of Idea the Artist, the project of bay area singer-songwriter Inés Beltranena. Fusing folk, rock, jazz, and electronic music, Idea’s mellifluous and dynamic classically trained voice paints over the soundscape of her eclectic musical background.

Shortly after the release of her first record, a severe ribcage disorder threatened the songwriter’s ability to walk. Still, she continued to perform, playing even as she lost control of her hands, and singing beautifully through excruciating pain. Despite a prognosis declaring her condition incurable with no hope of improvement, Idea persevered and found a unique doctor who aided her to walk again without the use of a cane. Recorded during her rehabilitation, “The Seafloor” album is a journey from the depth of crushing darkness outward toward what Idea calls “the house of light.” “It is the story of walking away from despair, and the bittersweet love and power that comes with that,” she says.

The album art, crafted by Idea, who is also an accomplished painter, clearly illustrates this concept, with motifs of impasto fish in saturated colors the viewer is treated to the entire journey, from the sunken shipwrecks looming in the vast, navy background to the golden, relieving, watery glow of “the house of light,” and its undulating red curtains.

Although the album was born out of this battle with health, Idea never explicitly mentions her ribcage, saying that the point of taking back her life was to “write about everything and anything but my ribs. This is my expression about all struggles, and all triumphs, not just my own. This is not just for me; it’s for everyone. It’s for you.”

The album will be released on March 24th, though physical copies of the record will be available at her CD release party at the Rickshaw Stop on Friday the 20th in San Francisco with bay area band Be Calm Honcho.